No-hit your debt

For those of you who don’t know, I am a huge New York Mets fan. I’ve bled orange and blue since 1986 when I was 9 years old and the Mets won the World Series. At that age, it was hard not to get swept up in “Let’s Go Mets!” fever and it just stuck. Better than another disease, I suppose.

As a Mets fan, I’m well versed in lots of emotions: horror, shock, disappointment, anger, and shame. There was one year the Mets were so awful, I wanted them to keep losing just so they could be the worst ever. I mean, if we’re going to suck, might as well do it the best we can (insert dirty joke here. I could not think of another way to say that. Fine. I didn’t want to). But this past Friday, I experienced an emotion that has become a rare commodity for Mets fans: pride.

That’s right. Pride. Why? Because on June 1, 2012, the Mets finally accomplished something that had been eluding them for the 50 years of the teams’ existence. A no-hitter. It was a beautiful thing.

I didn’t actually see the game but thanks to my Mets app and the live in-game Twitter updates, I was able to follow along. It kind of felt like I was there. It didn’t matter, though. On Saturday, Mets fans all over the world walked a little taller and held theirnheadds a little higher because of 134 pitches thrown by Johan Santana, 8 runs scored, and some pretty kick ass defensive work by the rest of the team. Including me. I proudly wore my Mets shirt on Saturday, incurring some wrath of the Phillies fan who are present in abundance where I live. Then again, I’ve never cared much about being popular so the part with the Phillies fans didn’t bother me at all.

Anyway, the point is this: they did it. The Mets finally have a no hitter. And the momentum that’s picked up as a result is unbelievable to watch. Kind of like what happens when you finally pay off that one debt that kills your soul more than the rest.

When you first set out to pay off your debt, it seems insurmountable. The sheer number of bills, debts and expenses is overwhelming and exhausting. You break it down into smaller bites just for it to seem manageable (for me, I used the Dave Ramsey snowball method to do that), and you work to eliminate one at a time. But even with that, there’s still that one that stands out, like a red flag for a bull, taunting you, harassing you, doing whatever it can to make you its bitch. No matter how hard you work, that debt never seems to move in the right direction. I know because I’ve been there.

For me, that debt was my home equity loan. In one of a series of stupid financial mistakes, my husband and I took out a home equity loan to help pay down some old debt (for the record, I do not advocate this). Like any good, practical people, we incurred more debt after we took out the loan and those later debts were the ones that we paid off first. But that home equity loan just stood there, every month, making us feel like no matter how hard we tried, no matter what we did, it wasn’t going to go anywhere. It was right, too. Whenever we felt like we were in a position to pay it off, something would happen and we’d need that money for something else. We’d get thisclose and then…nothing. It seemed like paying it off was never going to happen. Kind of like the Mets and the no-hitter.

Then, one day, it all clicked. We were finally able to get it all paid off. And once that happened, everything else just fell into place. The freedom that came with eliminating that debt made us feel like it was finally possible to live a debt free life, even though we still had more to pay. But conquering that hurdle was exactly what we needed to keep going.

I wish there was a magic formula to give for making that happen. Unfortunately there’s not. All I can tell you is this: just keep working hard. Surround yourself with people who support and encourage you even when it gets difficult (Mets fans are excellent in this capacity). Tell yourself that one day, it will happen. Be patient. And never, ever give up.

If the Mets can get a no-hitter and the Red Sox can win a World Series, you can pay off debt.